Trump’s warning to Putin as peace summit canceled at last minute | US | News
President Donald Trump referred to previously announced summit between himself and Russian President Vladimir Putin about peace Ukrainian as a “waste of time” at the White House Diwali celebration.
Trump told a reporter that his phone call with Putin last week did not influence his decision to stop talking about giving Tomahawks. UkrainianHowever, he said he canceled the meeting because it would be a “waste of time”.
“Everybody take a break because there are two countries killing each other,” Trump said.
A reporter followed Trump after he called the Budapest summit a “waste of time.” “I didn’t say anything. I didn’t say it was going to happen, and you know, you never know what’s going to happen, but there’s a lot going on on that front, on the war front with Ukraine and Russia, and we’ll be kept informed,” Trump stammered.
He added that its “not our war,” and the US simply sells arms to Ukraine, adding, “NATO and NATO gives it to Ukrainianbut we don’t pay anything anymore. Biden spent $350 billion.”
“If I were president, the war would never happen, never, not even in a million years, and Putin knows it. It would never happen. But it did, and I went in and I have to see if I can put it out, but it doesn’t affect us because we’re not losing soldiers there. Even though it worked out when I first came, it’s not going to happen.”
“But it could have ended up in World War II. This was really out of control. Now they’re shooting and killing people, and I think Putin wants it to be over, I think Zelensky wants it to be over, and I think it will be over.”
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The meeting between Trump and Putin was announced last week and was planned to take place in Budapest, Hungary in the near future. But the idea was halted after a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, according to the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The decision to postpone the meeting between Trump and Putin will likely come as a relief to European leaders who have accused Putin of wasting time on diplomacy while trying to gain ground on the battlefield.
Leaders including the British prime minister, the French president and the German chancellor have said they oppose any pressure for Ukraine to surrender territory seized by Russian forces in exchange for peace, as Trump has occasionally suggested.
The Kremlin also appears to be in no rush to bring Trump and Putin back together. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that “there needs to be preparations, serious preparations” ahead of the meeting.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is trying to strengthen Ukraine’s position by seeking long-range Tomahawk missiles from the United States, but Trump is chattering about whether he can provide them.
“We must end this war, and only pressure will lead to peace,” Zelensky said in a Telegram post on Tuesday.
